Road trip with the in-laws for a week. Rented one of these 15 passenger vans with the Ecoboost 3.5.
Pros:
-Plenty of power merging on to entrance ramps.
-Seats were comfy for everyone.
-Rear A/C was nice, and despite having 8 people in 95 degree temperatures, it had no trouble keeping the inside cool.
-Excellent visibility with the huge windshield and the low windows in the doors.
-Parking assistance sensors were very helpful when maneuvering it in tight parking lots.
-Gas mileage wasn't bad, looks like it averaged about 17 MPG.
-Didn't know the wipers were rain-sensing wipers until I left them in intermittent, and was surprised when they turned themselves on after it started sprinkling. Clever.
-Liked that it supported Android Auto, so when the wife was navigating us around, the maps came up on the big screen and it talked through the radio speakers.
Cons:
-10 speed transmission seemed reluctant to downshift. Seems like I'm mashing the gas to go up a hill, engine isn't having it, mash harder, engine lugs more, mash further, then finally it kicks down 2 gears instead. Even with the cruise control, it seems like it's waiting until the speed really starts bleeding off before it finally jumps down a couple of gears.
- Noisy. Although the faint turbo whine was kind of cool, it seemed like the exhaust was quite throaty. Had to look underneath to make sure somebody hadn't stolen the cat off or it had an exhaust leak. We had tried to rent one before for a road trip, but the reservation was cancelled because somebody had gone through and stolen the cats off the rental vans. Definitely more exhaust noise than my Ram.
- Lots of rattles and squeaks going over bumps. It only had 6000 miles on it, was still practically new.
- Rear collision avoidance seemed overly sensitive. Backing out of parking places it was constantly beeping about the cars on either side, although there was plenty of room and I was backing straight out. Backing out of a sloped driveway it apparently got really confused by the strip of concrete contrasting with the street, and it seemed to think I was backing into a curb. After lots of beeping it slammed on the brakes hard enough it felt like I had actually hit something, and the screen was indicating a collision. Had to get out and confirm all was clear, tried again, same thing. Finally got past the strip.
Pros:
-Plenty of power merging on to entrance ramps.
-Seats were comfy for everyone.
-Rear A/C was nice, and despite having 8 people in 95 degree temperatures, it had no trouble keeping the inside cool.
-Excellent visibility with the huge windshield and the low windows in the doors.
-Parking assistance sensors were very helpful when maneuvering it in tight parking lots.
-Gas mileage wasn't bad, looks like it averaged about 17 MPG.
-Didn't know the wipers were rain-sensing wipers until I left them in intermittent, and was surprised when they turned themselves on after it started sprinkling. Clever.
-Liked that it supported Android Auto, so when the wife was navigating us around, the maps came up on the big screen and it talked through the radio speakers.
Cons:
-10 speed transmission seemed reluctant to downshift. Seems like I'm mashing the gas to go up a hill, engine isn't having it, mash harder, engine lugs more, mash further, then finally it kicks down 2 gears instead. Even with the cruise control, it seems like it's waiting until the speed really starts bleeding off before it finally jumps down a couple of gears.
- Noisy. Although the faint turbo whine was kind of cool, it seemed like the exhaust was quite throaty. Had to look underneath to make sure somebody hadn't stolen the cat off or it had an exhaust leak. We had tried to rent one before for a road trip, but the reservation was cancelled because somebody had gone through and stolen the cats off the rental vans. Definitely more exhaust noise than my Ram.
- Lots of rattles and squeaks going over bumps. It only had 6000 miles on it, was still practically new.
- Rear collision avoidance seemed overly sensitive. Backing out of parking places it was constantly beeping about the cars on either side, although there was plenty of room and I was backing straight out. Backing out of a sloped driveway it apparently got really confused by the strip of concrete contrasting with the street, and it seemed to think I was backing into a curb. After lots of beeping it slammed on the brakes hard enough it felt like I had actually hit something, and the screen was indicating a collision. Had to get out and confirm all was clear, tried again, same thing. Finally got past the strip.
